Welcome to the 2012 Blue Heron Bowl Website

The 2012 Blue Heron Bowl will be held on Saturday, March 3, 2012 on the campus of East Carolina University in Greenville, NC. The links below provide information about the event, forms to be downloaded and sent in, and volunteer and sponsorship information. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

A Resources Guide is used to direct interested students and their teachers to key information and materials on ocean research and related topics. The actual questions for the regional and final competitions are drawn -- at least in part -- from this resource material. This guide was prepared because most high school science courses do not include ocean research "per se" as part of their content; students will often study weather formation, global climate issues, marine mammals and earth sciences, but not the oceans as the major engines of global climate and weather. Moreover, the general ocean sciences (physical and chemical oceanography, etc.) and specific ocean phenomena (currents, heat transfer mechanisms, etc.) are rarely studied at all.

What is the Blue Heron Bowl?

The Blue Heron Bowl is the regional competition for the National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB®). NOSB is a national academic competition for high schools on topics related to the study of the oceans and is coordinated by the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education CORE, representing leading oceanographic institutions universities and aquaria. The NOSB was first conducted in the winter and spring of 1998 in honor of the International Year of the Ocean. Past prizes have included trips to Southampton Oceanography Centre in England; Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies on Catalina Island, California; the Florida Keys; the Great Lakes Field Station; cruises on research vessels; visits to oceanographic institutions and aquaria; scholarships; scientific equipment and books.

What is the Purpose of the Competition?

This competition is intended to increase knowledge of the oceans on the part of high school students, their teachers and parents, as well as to raise the visibility and public understanding of the national investment in ocean-related research. Specific objectives of the National Ocean Sciences Bowl are to:

Broaden students' and teachers' awareness of the latest scientific research on the oceans and the critical impact of the oceans on global climate and weather, economic well-being, history and culture;

Help teachers use the oceans as an interdisciplinary vehicle for teaching biology, chemistry, geology, physics, and mathematics by giving them access to marine science education and scientific professionals;

Give oceanographic research programs the opportunity to develop new links with their local pre-college community and open student's eyes to ocean-related career options; and

Reach out to new students and communities to boost participation by populations under-represented in the ocean sciences.

What is the Design of the Competition?

The National Ocean Sciences Bowl consists of a round-robin/double-elimination format for teams of high school students; teams consist of four students plus one alternate and a coach. The format involves a timed competition of multiple-choice or short-answer questions within the broad category of the oceans. Questions are drawn from the scientific and technical disciplines used in studying the oceans (physics, chemistry, geology, atmospheric science, biology, etc.) as well as from topics on the contributions of the oceans to national and international economics, history and culture.

CORE, with the assistance of scientific question writers, a Technical Advisory Panel and the NOSB regional coordinators, prepares the competition rules and regulations and the specific questions to be used in both the regional and national competitions. The National Ocean Sciences Bowl is a timed competition (defined as the use of "lock-out"- type buzzer systems and clocks) between two teams. Each match consists of a series of toss-up questions that individual team members must answer without collaboration. A team that correctly responds to a toss-up question is given a bonus question to answer as a team. Additionally two "team challenge" questions are provided in written form and require teamwork and extra time to complete. Unlike the toss-up and bonus questions, both teams can answer the team challenge question and win points for their correct responses. Each match has 2 team challenge questions and approximately 14 toss-up questions paired with an equal number of bonus questions. Matches consist of two 6-minute halves with a 2-minute break. Additional time is given during the break for team challenge questions.

While regional competitions are generally completed in one day, the finals are held over a two-day period. Competitions consist of ~15 matches (or rounds) including tie-breakers, as necessary. The competition utilizes a round-robin format for the early rounds followed by a double-elimination segment for final rounds at the national finals and most of the regional tournaments. Some regional tournaments have incorporated team projects and posters into their competition format.

The winning teams from each of the twenty-five competitions are provided transportation and room and board for the final national competition. The location for the final competition changes annually.

Who is Involved?

National Sponsors

The National Ocean Sciences Bowl is a collaborative effort between CORE and the NOSB host institutions. The NOSB is generously supported by U.S. government agencies through the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP) as well as by corporations, foundations and other non-governmental organizations.

NOSB gratefully acknowledges the support provided by its many Twenty-five sites have been selected to host the regional competitions. Each site has designated a staff member as the primary coordinator for the region. The regional coordinators are trained by CORE staff on how to organize and administer the regional competition. Each regional bowl and the final competition is staffed and run by volunteers (e.g., faculty members, students, ocean professionals from nearby Federal labs, administrative staff, etc.).

With the ultimate success of the National Ocean Sciences Bowl requiring the concerted efforts of many hundreds of volunteer staff at the regional competitions and the finals, training and preparing these volunteers for their key roles is the responsibility of the national office staff and regional coordinators. These volunteers serve as moderators, scientific judges, rules judges, timers and scorekeepers and are drawn from host institutions, Federal agencies and marine industry. CORE provides travel for regional coordinators to a mandatory training meeting each September. Each regional site is responsible for raising local funds to supplement an annual program subsidy provided by CORE.

Participating High Schools

The CORE institutions hosting a regional competition define the geographic area included in their competition, and invite schools located in those regions. Generally, schools participating in the regional bowl pay their own expenses to the regional competition, though some locations provided some assistance.

The Technical Advisory Panel

The Technical Advisory Panel is composed of approximately 15 ocean scientists, university-level educators and high school teachers to provide overall guidance and advice to the development of the National Ocean Sciences Bowl. Specifically, the Panel provides technical oversight on changes to the competition format and the preparation of competition questions. The Panel meets two to three times in Washington, DC, between October and February of a given school year.

The Resources Guide includes citations to a number of key sources of information on the oceans -- textbooks, CD-ROMs, and select sites on the World Wide Web. This Guide has been reviewed by the Technical Advisory Panel, and was prepared by CORE staff. The Resources Guide is available on the Internet, and distributed by the regional coordinators to schools in their regional service area.

With input from ocean scientists and educators throughout the CORE community, CORE project staff prepare the questions for the regional and final competitions. Approximately 3000 questions are prepared for the competitions each year. The questions are organized for the regional and national competitions in order of increasing difficulty.

Details of the Event

When

Blue Heron Bowl: March 3, 2012

NOSB Finals Weekend:

Where

Blue Heron Bowl: East Carolina University in Greenville, NC

NOSB Finals:

Specifics for Blue Heron Bowl

Friday, March 2, 2012

Participants arrive at the City Hotel in the afternoon.

18:00 Informational dinner at the City Hotel

20:00 Participants retire for the evening

Saturday, March 3, 2012

06:30-07:30 Breakfast at the City Hotel

07:30 Welcome note at the Bate Building, ECU campus

08:00-11:00 Round-robin

11:00-12:00 Lunch

12:00-17:00 Double-elimination rounds

17:30 Final Showdown with "Participant-choice" judges

18:00 Awards ceremony

What Prizes will be Awarded?

What are the Prizes?

Past BHB winners have won trips, laptops, iPods, and portable DVD players. The 2012 prizes will be announced soon, so be sure to check back for updated information.

Volunteer Opportunities

We need at least 60 volunteers throughout this event. If you volunteer, you'll receive a volunteer t-shirt, food during the event, food during a volunteer training session, and the possibility of prizes.

If you have volunteered before and would like to participate again, GREAT! Email Dr. Jeffery Alejandro at alejandroj@ecu.ecu and we can sign you up in your preferred position.

If you haven't volunteered before, but are mildly interested, an overview of the volunteer positions is available here. For each two team competition, we need the following:

We are planning three one hour training sessions during the weeks of: 11/29/10; 01/24/11; 02/07/11

Sponsorship Opportunities

We are currently seeking local and corporate sponsorship for the Blue Heron Bowl!

We have three different sponsorship levels:

Crew at the $100-$500 level

Captain at the $501-$2000 level

Admiral at the $2,001 or greater level

Depending on the level of tax-deductible sponsorship, contributors will be recognized by placing business names and logos on the official Blue Heron Bowl website, Blue Heron Bowl t-shirts and programs. A full-page "thank you" with sponsor logos will be published in the Daily Reflector and sponsor business logos will appear in all outreach presentations. Ocean Navigator sponsorship is earmarked for the purchase of laptops of the members of the winning team and a special ceremony, recognizing this special sponsorship, will be conducted during the awards ceremony.

National Ocean Sciences Bowl

The Consortium for Ocean Leadership, representing leading oceanographic institutions universities and aquaria, manages a national academic competition for high schools on topics related to the study of the oceans — the National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB®).

Click on logo to learn more.

News from the 2011 Blue Heron Bowl

Visit last years site to discover and learn about the winners from the 2011 competition.